


Guidance Notes

by lennongirl



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Coaches, Friendship/Love, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-16
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-16 03:37:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lennongirl/pseuds/lennongirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Responsibility issues - and how to solve them. Sometimes, knowing you're not alone can help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guidance Notes

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in 1998 - Slomka is 96's Youth Coach, Hecking is still playing for the A-Team.
> 
> Disclaimer: I made this up. It's not true and I have idea what I'm talking about. And I don't get paid for this, either. Life hard.
> 
> Written in DXecember 2007.

Mirko Slomka rings the bell and waits for the door to open. He’s not expected, he didn’t call beforehand to announce his visit. He doesn’t have to. He knows Dieter is in and will welcome him. He knows he can drop by any time he likes to.

Three minutes later they’re sitting in the kitchen, two hot cups of coffee standing in front of them, leaving stains on the surface of the glass table. Dieter doesn’t use table mats and as usual, he’s slurping while he gives his coffee a first taste. Mirko knows that he could remind Dieter both of the missing mats and the slurping. He also knows that Dieter might shrug about the mats and chuckle about the slurps and in the end, won’t change either.

“So,” Dieter eventually starts, “what’s eating you? And don’t tell me you’re here for the coffee only. I know you’re not.”

“Nah.” Mirko leans back and watches his friend. He hasn’t exactly figured out how to ask what he came over for. “I’m… I wanted to know if you’d like to help me.”

“Help you? With what?” Dieter gets up, fetches the coffee pot and puts it onto the table, within reach of both of them. No mat for the pot, either.

“With the juniors.”

Dieter sits back down again. He furrows his brow and Mirko can tell he’s confused. Or surprised. Probably a mix of both.

“With the juniors? How could I be of any help?”

Mirko sighs. “Come to Norderney with me.“

“What? For a honeymoon?”

Mirko ignores the remark. “I know the date suits you. No training, no matches, no excuse.”

Dieter laughs. “Who says I need an excuse? What I need is a reason that makes sense. You’re kidding me, right?”

“No.”

Dieter shakes his head before he looks at Mirko again. Mirko can tell he’s amused now, probably still thinking this is some kind of joke. But Mirko is serious. He’s thought about it for the last few days. He needs a second hand to handle the training camp, and he can’t think of anybody else being his second man except for Dieter. He doesn’t want anybody else. 

He knows he has to make use of the silence that’s surrounding them now. He has to say something before Dieter laughs and will make more fun of the idea than Mirko could stand. 

“I’m serious. I want you to come with me and help me during the camp. Be my assistant coach. Teach something. Hell, learn something. Let’s do this together. It’s only a few days.”

Mirko knows he’s on shaky ground, but he also knows the prospect of learning something in combination with the magical word ‘coach’ will strike exactly the nerve he was aiming for.

He’s right about it.

“Hm. Maybe you’re not as far off as I thought,” Dieter muses, and Mirko tries to hold back a smirk. He’s got him.

 

***

 

They’re jogging at the beach, guiding the flock of young players that are depending on them. Mirko looks back at them more often than he wants to. He can’t help it, he has to check upon them all the time. Dieter has started mocking him because of it, but sometimes, Mirko thinks that the responsibility might be a bit too big for him. Even after taking care of all these kids for years now, there are still days when he thinks that he, Mirko Slomka, has no idea what he’s actually doing, what it is people actually expect from him. He wonders how people could ever grant him the responsibility he has, making sure young promising talents develop into players who could face the big stages of the national football world. Maybe even more. 

This is different from helping the little ones making their first steps into a life that might once be filled with sports only. These are the boys who are almost there, who are about to arrive at the end of their education, the education he gave them. And even after all these years of teaching and managing, there are still so many new situations Mirko isn’t sure how to handle.

He doesn’t know if he reacted the right way when Gerald Asamoah was asking him whether he should play for the national team of Ghana or get German citizenship and hope to be called up for the German team one day. Mirko feels it’s not up to him to give such an advice. This is a young man’s life, his identity, his whole future they’re talking about, and who is he to say what’s the best choice to make under such circumstances? 

He takes a deep breath and looks behind himself once more.

“It’s okay. They’re still following us,” Dieter says with a hint of humour in his voice, and Mirko tries to shake the worries off his mind. He knows that Dieter has far less experience with what they’re doing. He actually has no experience at all. Yet he seems to be way more secure about it. Mirko knows that’s why he wanted Dieter to come with him. It’s one of the reasons they’re both on this island now. But it’s not the only one.

 

***

 

“Coach?” Sebastian Kehl is the captain of Mirko’s young team. He’s only 18, tall and a bit too thin, Mirko thinks. He could need some exercise to work on his torso. Weightlifting, maybe. Sit-ups. More proteins. Fish for dinner. 

“Coach?” the young player asks again.

“Five against five, small field”, Mirko announces. “Half an hour. Then, we’ll head over to the gym.”

Sebastian leaves and announces the instructions to the rest of the team. Half of them put on the yellow shirts Dieter is handing out to them. Mirko waits for his friend to join him on the sideline.

“Did I hear you say gym?” Dieter asks.

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll go and order some fish for dinner.”

Mirko nods. Sometimes, working with Dieter seems to be a bit too easy. 

 

***

They spend most of their free time talking. It took Mirko two days of mindless chit-chat until he realised that that’s not what he needs Dieter for. So he starts talking for real. About responsibility and experience and growing up and what’s ahead. He talks about family and children and Hanover. He’s just extended his contract for another two years, and he tells Dieter that he’s not too sure about it all anymore. He hasn’t shared these doubts with anybody, not even his wife knows about it. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t even know himself why he’s doubting any of what he’s reached so far.

He’s not surprised to learn that Dieter loves being a coach. It’s his first time, ever, yet he seems to be so very sure about it all. Maybe it’s because first and foremost, he’s still an active player. Maybe it’s because being a coach is not his way of earning his living. Maybe it’s more like some extra fun on the side for him.

But Mirko is wrong and once he’s done with sharing all his thoughts and doubts, it’s Dieter’s turn to confess. Mirko learns that his friend isn’t as happy as he always thought he was, maybe hoped he was. He learns that he’s not the only one having self doubts and feeling insecure. Dieter isn’t happy with what he’s achieved so far – “what have I achieved that I could be proud of,” he asks, and apart from the usual “family, wife, children”-mantra, Mirko doesn’t have an answer, and he knows Dieter wasn’t talking about aspects of his private life.

“Becoming a coach might be my last chance”, Dieter finally says. Mirko understands and offers Dieter the supervision of next day’s unit. 

But Dieter declines. “Don’t try to find an easy way out while selling it as a favour to me,” he says. 

Mirko feels busted, but Dieter just laughs.

 

***

 

Sometimes, there is almost no talking going on between them. 

When they leave the pub for the hotel, they will walk in silence. They will take the stairs. Mirko will try to listen as hard as possible for any music or laughter coming out of his players' rooms. Dieter will unlock his own room and give a slight nod. Mirko will follow him.

Inside, they won’t talk at all. Dieter will challenge Mirko. He will dare him to do what Mirko thought he couldn’t. Mirko will face and accept the challenge and take it further each time. He will learn. He will grow. He will enjoy it more than he ever thought he would. They both will. So they stick to it until Mirko has understood.

Until they are equals.

 

***

 

The pub nearby is clean and cozy. Mirko sips on his beer and relaxes. It’s their last night on the island and looking back on it, the camp was a full success. Mostly for him, probably, for Mirko feels as if he’s learned and achieved more during these past days than his whole team together, let alone Dieter. He’s satisfied and happy; he’s looking forward to the season. He has a team under him who has the potential to make things happen. And he knows he can make it possible. And he will.

“So what’s ahead?” he asks Dieter.

“For you? The team? Us?”

“Don’t know. Us. Where will we be in five years from now? Ten years?”

“We’ll be old and grey. A bit chubby maybe. But it doesn’t really matter what we look like, because we’ll be powerful men, telling overpaid players to run faster and tackle harder.”

Mirko laughs. “Just imagine. We’ll meet in Bundesliga one day. The big teams. The big stadiums. Your technical zone next to my technical zone. You’ll roar and shout and I’ll be all hoarse, trying to catch up and make myself heard, too. That would be… crazy.”

“It’ll happen. You just wait and see.” 

There’s a degree of seriousness in Dieter’s voice that makes Mirko quit the joking.

“Which team would you manage, then?” Mirko asks. “No, let me guess. You’d want to stay in Hanover. Who knows, maybe you’ll guide them back into first league football, even.”

“Wouldn’t you want to stay, too?”

“Would you still want to be my assistant coach in ten years time?”

Now it’s Dieter’s turn to laugh. “Maybe you could be mine then.”

“Maybe.”

Mirko can’t know where he’ll be or what he’ll do in ten years time. All he knows is that Dieter won’t be too far away. And with him, almost everything seems to be possible.

 

_The End._


End file.
